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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29114724">Can't Sleep Without You Beside Me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onehelluvapilot/pseuds/Onehelluvapilot'>Onehelluvapilot</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Febuwhump [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Merlin (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Burns, Cuddling &amp; Snuggling, Hurt Percival (Merlin), Hurt/Comfort, Insomnia, M/M, Sleepy Cuddles, Whump</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 04:26:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>581</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29114724</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onehelluvapilot/pseuds/Onehelluvapilot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Percival's lies awake in bed, unable to sleep because of the pain of the burns on his chest, until he decides to do something about it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gwaine/Percival (Merlin)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Febuwhump [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2134998</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Can't Sleep Without You Beside Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Betaed by the lovely writer LiGi, who is also doing febuwhump with Merlin characters! Go check her out!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Percival lay in bed, but sleep was eluding him completely. Gaius had given him a potion to help with the pain of the burns stretching across his chest, but despite the fact that it had sedative properties, it wasn’t enough to make him drift off. He wondered when he’d gotten so soft. It used to be that he could fall asleep lying on the ground with worse injuries and no painkillers, and now he lay in a feather bed and still couldn’t manage it. Instinctively, he reached out and tried to pull Gwaine closer to him, before he realized that his boyfriend wasn’t with him. It was determined that Percival needed rest and shouldn’t risk having someone roll over onto him and hurting him. The knight himself decided he disagreed, and he carefully pushed the blankets off and stood up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gwaine opened the door to his room when it was knocked on. “Percy? Shouldn’t you be resting?” He asked, his voice bleary with sleep and rubbing his eyes to try to wake up more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I couldn’t sleep without you,” Percival admitted, and came to the realization that </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> was the problem, of course it was. He’d gotten used to sleeping with Gwaine’s head resting on his chest, feeling his body heat next to him, and the comfort of knowing that if there was an attack, he would have another man fighting right beside him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gwaine looked conflicted. “Not that I don’t love sleeping with you, babe, but didn’t Gaius say you shouldn’t put any pressure against the burns?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We can be careful, right?” Percival asked. “You could just lie beside me, and I think that would help and be alright.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay. Come lie down in my bed then, since you’re in here already.” Gwaine let his boyfriend lead the way back to his bed, the blankets to which were all rumpled from having been slept in already. Percival took the left side of the bed, as he always did, and the smaller man curled up beside him. Normally he would rest his head on his broad shoulder to sleep, but today he just snuggled up close to him so they could share the pillow, in deference to the burns spread across Percy’s entire chest. They’d been pursuing a sorcerer, who had conjured up a massive pillar of fire to distract them as she tried to escape. The big knight had jumped in between it and Merlin, who it had been heading straight at for some reason, and suffered the consequences as the extreme heat quickly reached through his chainmail to scald his skin. Fortunately, the fire-pillar had broken apart just after that, which was the only reason he hadn’t been killed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is this alright?” Gwaine asked, wanting to be sure he wasn’t hurting him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, this is great,” Percy agreed as he wrapped his arm around him. In contrast to how he’d been lying awake in his own bed for hours, he already felt sleepy now. His eyes were drifting shut, helped by the way his boyfriend was stroking his cheek. He barely even noticed the discomfort of his wounds now, though even with the pain draught earlier it had been almost unbearable. He must’ve drifted off and slept through the night, since sunlight was streaming in through the window when he woke. Judging by the angle of it, it was probably mid-morning, and Gwaine would be late to practice, but instead, he was still right beside him, snuggled up close.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Comments make my day!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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